Germany must now hold the line against resurgent nationalism.

Donald Trump’s presidential election was a shot heard around the world. Dictators cheered the defeat of Hillary Clinton, and democracies—in particular American allies—grew gravely concerned. The entire liberal international order now appears to be at risk, with nativism and populism still on the march. Although conventional wisdom suggests the East is rising and the West is fading, now with more pivotal elections approaching Western allies are turning their eyes to Germany. Ironically, Trump’s awkward summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel actually makes it more likely the Germans will take on the mantle of global leadership.

As the Clinton campaign grew confident of victory last October, her Europe advisers determined in their last meeting that her first trip abroad would be to Brussels for a joint summit with the European Union and NATO. The theme was to be that of democracy, specifically the West standing together and united for democracy, and against those such as Russia who seek to subvert it. They discussed having President Clinton engage Prime Minister May in a pull-aside meeting on the summit margins, with the former informing the latter that the United States does not want the United Kingdom to go through with Brexit, and that she would help her special relationship colleague to climb down from her perilous perch.

However, with Donald Trump at the helm instead, whose first meeting with a foreign leader was none other than the United Kingdom’s UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, none of this is likely to come to pass. Instead, the new president has become a cheerleader for Brexit, a critic of the EU, and a skeptic about NATO, a telling exemplification of what the German government views as his being among the least strategically adept president in American history—as well as one of the most undiplomatic. Chancellor Merkel had her work cut out for her.

Oil prices dipped on Wednesday as rising crude stocks in the United States underscored an ongoing global fuel supply overhang despite an OPEC-led effort to cut output. Prices for front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were at $50.79 per barrel at 0451 GMT, down 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 18 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $48.08 a barrel. "Crude oil prices fell as concerns over rising U.S. inventories resurfaced," ANZ bank said on Wednesday. U.S. crude oil inventories climbed by 4.5 million barrels in the week to March 17 to 533.6 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said late on Tuesday. "The American Petroleum Institutes' crude inventories stuck the knife into crude overnight, coming in at a 4.5 million barrel increase against an expected increase of 2.8 million barrels," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore. "If the API stuck the knife in, tonight's EIA Crude Inventory figures may twist it. A blowout above the 2.1 million barrel increase expected, may well torpedo oil below the waterline," he added. Official U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) oil storage data is due on Wednesday. The bloated storage comes as U.S. oil production has risen over 8 percent since mid-2016 to more than 9.1 million barrels per day (bpd), levels comparable to late 2014, when the oil market slump started. Rising production in the United States and elsewhere, and bloated inventories, are undermining efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut output and prop up prices. "OPEC's market intervention has not yet resulted in significant visible inventory draw-downs, and the financial markets have lost patience," U.S. bank Jefferies said on Wednesday in a note to clients, although it added that the cutbacks would likely start to show by the second half of the year if OPEC extends its production cuts beyond June. Despite cuts, analysts warned of renewed or ongoing oversupply in coming years, especially as U.S. shale producers ramp up and once OPEC returns to full capacity. U.S. bank Goldman Sachs warned its clients in a note this week that a U.S. shale led production surge "could create a material oversupply in 2018-19."

They are nicknamed "kamikaze" drones. Houthi forces and those aligned with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen are using them to target the missile-defense systems of Saudi-led coalition forces, weapons analysts say. According to a study by Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a London-based organization funded by the European Union to monitor the movement and use of conventional weaponry, Iran has been supplying Houthi forces and Saleh loyalists with weaponry since the start of the two-year conflict that has left 10,000 civilians dead and an estimated 40,000 injured. Among the weapons — unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which CAR researchers say in their report released Wednesday have been supplied in batches to Houthi and Saleh’s forces. Topple government Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015 after Houthis toppled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Government forces dominate in the south and east of the impoverished country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, but Houthis, who are an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, control the larger towns in the northwest, including the capital, Sana'a. CAR researchers report that Houthi- and Saleh-aligned forces employ many of the drones to target the Saudi coalition’s Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. “They do so by crashing the UAVs into the systems’ radar sets (specifically the circular main phased arrays) -- directing the UAVs by programming their systems with open-source GPS coordinates of the Patriots’ positions,” researchers said. “While the coalition deploys Patriot systems to counter missile threats, the destruction of the Patriots’ radar systems enables Houthi- and Saleh-aligned forces to target coalition assets with volleys of missile fire unhindered,” they added. The use of these drones illustrates the Houthi- and Saleh-aligned forces’ ability to employ low-cost technology against the coalition’s sophisticated military assets, researchers said. Military transfers Military transfers by the Iranians to their allies in Yemen have been stepped up in recent months, according to U.S. and Western officials. On Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported that U.S. officials have intelligence indicating Iran has been increasing weapons transfers to the Houthis, mirroring the strategy Tehran has used to support its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, in Syria. Iran rejects accusations from Saudi Arabia and the West that it is giving financial and military aid to the Houthis in the battle over Yemen. Tehran blames Riyadh for the intractable conflict. Last October, U.S. and Western officials highlighted the Iranian weapons transfers, which they said includes a range of weaponry, from small arms to missiles, as well as coastal defense cruise missiles such as ones fired at the USS Mason, an American naval destroyer, three times in October 2016. Those attacks on the naval destroyer prompted retaliation by the U.S. military, which launched cruise missiles that destroyed three Houthi radar sites. Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, head of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, accused Iran shortly after the attacks on the USS Mason of being connected with the attacks on the ship. And he disclosed that U.S. and partner nations intercepted five seaborne weapons shipments from Iran that were headed to the Houthis. The CAR researchers say the acquisition of Qasef-1 drones “supports [Western] allegations that Iran continues to bolster the capacity of Houthi- and Saleh-aligned forces through the transfer of new technology and advanced weaponry.” Weapons transfers are enabling the Houthis and their allies to conduct sophisticated asymmetric operations against the Saudi-led coalition. Unmanned aerial vehicles The CAR investigators inspected seven UAVs for their report. Six were seized on November 27 by Presidential Guards from the Emirates, who intercepted a truck transporting them in Yemen’s Marib province. The drones were partially assembled. A seventh was recovered after it crashed near Aden International Airport. CAR investigators also examined a damaged drone recovered after a Houthi attack. The fuselage and wings of the UAVs bore printed serial numbers, corresponding to handwritten serial numbers stamped on various internal components. Some of the serial numbers were consecutive, indicating that the drones were manufactured on the same production line. Last month, Houthi forces displayed four UAVs, which they claimed to have designed and manufactured themselves. One of the systems displayed is identical to the UAVs produced by Iran’s Aircra Manufacturing Industrial Company, the CAR investigators said. Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, a spokesman for the Sunni Arab coalition fighting the Houthis, told Reuters, "We don't lack information or evidence that the Iranians, by various means, are smuggling weapons into the area.” Saudi military officials say that many of the weapons systems being used by the Houthis now were not in the arsenals of the Yemeni army, which the Houthis plundered in the first months of the conflict. Many of the Iranian weapons are being transported overland through Yemen’s neighbor Oman, Saudi officials said. Oman denied the claim.

Russia's force in Syria has suffered losses since late January more than three times higher than the official toll, according to evidence gathered by Reuters, a tally that shows the fight in Syria is tougher and more costly than the Kremlin has disclosed. Eighteen Russian citizens fighting alongside Moscow's allies, the Syrian government forces, have been killed since Jan. 29 -- a period that coincided with intense fighting to recapture the city of Palmyra from the Islamic State group. The Russian defense ministry has publicly reported only five servicemen's deaths in Syria over the same period, and its officials' statements have not mentioned any large-scale Russian ground operations in the fight for Palmyra. Politically sensitive Military casualties abroad are not as politically sensitive in Russia as in some other countries but send a negative message ahead of a presidential election next year which is expected to give President Vladimir Putin a fourth term. The toll was revealed in interviews with relatives and friends of the dead men, cemetery workers, local media reports of funerals and evidence collected by a group of investigative bloggers, Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT). In each case, Reuters has independently verified information about the death by speaking to someone who knows the dead man. The casualties since the end of January represent one of the highest tolls for the Russian contingent in Syria since the start of Moscow's military intervention 18 months ago. An official with the Russian foreign ministry referred questions about them to the defense ministry. The Russian defense ministry did not respond to Reuters questions about the casualties and about military operations in Syria. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Private contractors Most of the dead were not regular Russian soldiers, but Russian civilians working as private military contractors under the orders of Russian commanders. Moscow has not officially acknowledged the presence of the contractors in Syria. One of the 18 men killed was Yuri Sokalsky, a 52-year-old from the Russian Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik who, according to a person close to him, signed up to go to Syria in January with a group of private contractors. In one of his last phone calls home, the person close to him said, he expressed surprise at the large numbers of Russian contractors being despatched to Syria, and relayed what he had been told about the intensity of the combat. "Out of every 100 people, 50 are coming back in caskets," the person recalled Sokalsky as saying. The person asked not to be identified, fearing repercussions for revealing information that is sensitive for the Russian authorities. On March 14 last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial drawdown of Russian forces in Syria, saying their mission had, "as a whole, been fulfilled." The fight for Palmyra this year tells a different story. Death announcements The 18 fatalities documented by Reuters include the five regular soldiers whose deaths were announced by the defense ministry, four private military contractors in one unit killed on the same day, seven other such contractors, and two regular soldiers whose deaths the defense ministry has not announced. The period examined by Reuters coincided with the start of a major Russian deployment to the area around Palmyra, according to several people close to the dead fighters. Several relatives of people killed in Syria said they had received phone calls from people involved in recruiting private military contractors warning them not to speak to media. Out of the 18 dead, at least 10 were killed in the region of Palmyra, which Islamic State fighters seized in December for a second time in a year - a major reversal for Syrian government forces and their Russian backers. On Jan. 10, Sokalsky, a land mine specialist, left his home in Gelendzhik and set off for Rostov, in southern Russia, to join a group of private contractors being despatched to Syria. On his one previous tour to Syria, only fighters over 35 were being hired, selected to carry out specialist technical roles or train Syrian units rather than for out-and-out combat. "This time they were taking everyone," said the person close to Sokalsky. Shrapnel injuries Two official documents seen by Reuters show that on Jan. 31, Sokalsky died from shrapnel injuries in Tiyas, in Syria's Homs province about 60 km west of Palmyra. Three other members of his unit, all private military contractors, were killed the same day, according to relatives, friends and cemetery officials. They were Alexei Nainodin, Roman Rudenko, and a third man whose name Reuters was not able to establish. Another private military contractor, Dmitry Markelov, was also killed at Tiyas, site of the Syrian military's T4 air base, on Jan. 29, according to people close to him. Four regular Russian servicemen were killed in the same area on Feb. 16, Russian state media cited a defense ministry statement as saying. The soldiers, described by state media as "advisors" to the Syrian military, were not named. A fifth regular serviceman, Artyom Gorbunov, was killed near Palmyra on March 2, state media quoted the ministry as saying. A further eight members of the Russian contingent were killed since the end of January at unknown locations in Syria, the evidence gathered by Reuters showed. They were contractors Konstantin Zadorozhny, Ivan Slyshkin, Vasily Yurlin, Alexander Sagaydak, Alexander Zangiyev, and Alexander Tychinin, and regular Russian soldiers Igor Vorona, and Sergei Travin. Local media reports and social media posts point to more Russian deaths in Syria since the end of January than the 18 casualties, but Reuters has not been able to verify that information independently.

GOP Takes Up Russia-Aligned Attack On SorosPoliticoA group of congressional Republicans is teaming up with Russia-backed politicians in Eastern Europe with the shared goal of stopping a common enemy: billionaire financier George Soros. Led by Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah ...

A German-led NATO battle group of tanks, armored vehicles, and troops, including Lithuanians, engaged “enemy attackers” mid-March on a field outside a military base in Rukla, Lithuania. The NATO group fired flares, smoke canisters, and blanks for what a press officer said was the first demonstration of maneuvers since they arrived in Lithuania earlier this year. A group of visiting German military and other European dignitaries watched from nearby stands. “We are from Norway, we are from Belgium and from the Netherlands. We all accomplished a very high intensity training,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Christoph Huber, commander of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group, and the German contingent in Lithuania. “And, we are prepared to deter and to defend Lithuania.” NATO is sending additional troops to the Baltics to reassure the former Soviet states against a resurgent Russia, which described the deployment as threatening its security. NATO troops After Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, NATO agreed to send troops to Lithuania and to Estonia, Latvia, and Poland in a move to deter potential Russian aggression. Russia’s military drills and increased buzzing of NATO airspace have raised concerns among Baltic states, which rely on NATO policing for defense. NATO jet scrambles to intercept Russian warplanes approaching NATO member airspace jumped from an estimated 400 times in 2014 and 2015 to 800 times in 2016. “We are protecting NATO airspace, NATO borders,” said Major Martin, commander of the Netherlands Air Force Detachment for NATO’s Baltic air policing in Siaulai. “And, it is not necessarily just the Russians - it’s any aircraft that does not comply with the rules that we ... that apply in the air.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that NATO members pay more for their defense is welcomed by the Baltic states but there is concern that his push for better U.S.-Russia relations not sacrifice their interests. “We do hope that such kind of relations will not create new spheres of influence; no more Yaltas Two; and of course they should not be contrary to the international law as we know it,” said Latvia Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics. Building a fence Lithuania is taking measures that include building a fence this year along its open border with Russia’s Kaliningrad. The main purpose of the fence is to prevent smuggling, but there are also concerns about Russia. “Well, as I say, we have to be prepared for the worst,” said the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense’s Political Director Vaidotas Urbelis. “Provocations could happen. And, we saw an incident on the Estonian border where one officer was just kidnapped.” The September 2014 incident on the Estonian border raised concern that Russia planned to use the same hybrid warfare techniques on the Baltics that it used to seize Crimea and still employs in eastern Ukraine. Sandwiched between NATO members Lithuania and Poland, Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave is a strategic, military outpost housing its Baltic Fleet. Russia recently moved a S-400 missile defense system and nuclear capable Iskandar ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, citing military posturing from NATO. Some residents are worried about the potential for conflict. "Because the Kaliningrad region is quite small and many people are quite concerned about that, including us,” said resident Ekaterina who only gave her first name. Won't take a risk Others are less concerned. "I do not think that someone would take such a risk. I do not think that both NATO and the European Union are in a hostile mood,” said a resident who identified himself only as Ilya. “The issue is with our president (Vladimir Putin),” he added. Just in case, Baltic states urged NATO to take additional security measures in the region ahead of a Russian September military exercise in neighboring Belarus, which some fear is much larger in scale than reported. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite in February described Russia’s Zapad 2017 drills as “a very large and aggressive force that will very demonstrably be preparing for a war with the West.” Russian state media on Tuesday reported the joint Russia-Belarus exercises involve around 3,000 Russian troops, 280 pieces of hardware and up to 25 Russian aircraft. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday invited NATO observers to the drills in an effort to increase transparency. "We are not hiding and should not hide anything. If NATO representatives want to be present at our drills, you are welcome. Moreover, I’m already receiving such information and such signals from them,” he said.

Trump's former campaign chief drew up 2005 plan 'to benefit Putin'The CourierDonald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin, it has been revealed. Mr Manafort wrote a 2005 strategy plan that he said “can greatly benefit ...

Staunton, March 22 – “Patriotism has become so officious and insincere that it has begun to be rejected” by Russians, especially given that those officials who are promoting it are presiding over a situation in which Russians are living far worse than they did, according to Moscow political analyst Abbas Gallyamov.

Indeed, other experts say, the Putin regime’s reliance on the Great Fatherland War as a unifying force is failing. Political analyst Nikolay Mironov says that that conflict “interests already less than half of Russians given that as a result of the increasing time since its end, the events of the war have passed into the realm of myths.”

And in presenting its commentary on the Levada Center poll, the New Chronicle of Current Events leads with the following quotation, one that must certainly disturb those in the Kremlin who think that their version of patriotism is sufficient to fill the vacuum left by the absence of an ideology at a time of social and economic stress.

In another reflection about this poll, Moscow commentator Arkady Babchenko says “in fact, Russians are not proud of anything. Russia is a country with an absolutely Soviet mentality: close your eyes and pass by. Always. Give out the impression that you didn’t see anything” and say whatever the powers want you to (echo.msk.ru/blog/ababchenko/1948348-echo/).

And that reflects a deeper problem: Russia is “a country which is not capable of sympathy and therefore is no capable of being proud. Pride is always tied up with shame. And if you are incapable of feeling shame, you will not be capable of feeling pride either.”

As a result of Stalinism, Russians were reduced to a state of “’moral idiotism’” or even suffered “’moral castration,’” Babchenko says. “Since that time, Russia has been a country of cynics who spit on both shame and pride.” That is because they know that all they are told is mythical – and they thus suspect the worst.

Sometimes it may seem that national myths are useful in uniting the nation, but “this isn’t so. Myth [at that level] is always dangerous,” he continues.The myth about St. Vladimir led to the Crimean Anschluss. “The myth about the Aryans and the untermenschen led to Auschwitz. The myth about the 40 hooris led to ISIS.”

Moreover, “the myth that George Bush had a brain le to the Iraq war, and that in turn led to millions of refugees.” And the myth about cyborgs at the Donetsk airport” led to other disasters that could and should have been avoided, Babchenko says.

Germany became great “only after it was forced over the course of 20 years to return” from the world of myths to the world of reality. The same thing will have to happen in Russia as well. That is the only way it can be cured of its current disastrous situation, Babchenko suggests; but he adds that the process will be far from painless.

Germany must now hold the line against resurgent nationalism.

Donald Trump’s presidential election was a shot heard around the world. Dictators cheered the defeat of Hillary Clinton, and democracies—in particular American allies—grew gravely concerned. The entire liberal international order now appears to be at risk, with nativism and populism still on the march. Although conventional wisdom suggests the East is rising and the West is fading, now with more pivotal elections approaching Western allies are turning their eyes to Germany. Ironically, Trump’s awkward summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel actually makes it more likely the Germans will take on the mantle of global leadership.

As the Clinton campaign grew confident of victory last October, her Europe advisers determined in their last meeting that her first trip abroad would be to Brussels for a joint summit with the European Union and NATO. The theme was to be that of democracy, specifically the West standing together and united for democracy, and against those such as Russia who seek to subvert it. They discussed having President Clinton engage Prime Minister May in a pull-aside meeting on the summit margins, with the former informing the latter that the United States does not want the United Kingdom to go through with Brexit, and that she would help her special relationship colleague to climb down from her perilous perch.

However, with Donald Trump at the helm instead, whose first meeting with a foreign leader was none other than the United Kingdom’s UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, none of this is likely to come to pass. Instead, the new president has become a cheerleader for Brexit, a critic of the EU, and a skeptic about NATO, a telling exemplification of what the German government views as his being among the least strategically adept president in American history—as well as one of the most undiplomatic. Chancellor Merkel had her work cut out for her.

Tuesday on the NewsHour, Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch gets grilled by Senate Democrats during his confirmation hearing. Also: President Trump lobbies Republicans to vote for the revised health care replacement, new rules for passengers on flights from 10 foreign cities, parents in a poor neighborhood get more from their preschool and the Whitney Biennial offers art amid major national divides.

NZ companies linked to $21b money laundering schemeNew Zealand HeraldCompanies based in New Zealand were part of a criminal scheme to move large sums of money, including the transfer of US$21 billion out of Russia, according to a group of anti-corruption reporters. The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project ...

Russia should join NATO: the benefits for the Global Security are enormous

To reformulate Lord Ismay's phrase: 1) Take Russia in, 2) Continue keeping Germany down, 3) Assert and exercise the US leadership position within the NATO as a unifying and directing force and vector.

"Ловец Человеков"

Connected? The halo is there. And the Book is there. And the disciples are there. But where is the Light of Understanding, in this big curved dark tunnel of a vision? Where is the big red dot? Where is the new beginning?

Russia and US Presidential Elections of 2016 - Google News

Russia international behavior - Google News

RUSSIA and THE WEST

russia ukraine - Google News

West, Russia, Putin

US - Russia relations - Google News

Hillary Clinton and rock group Pussy Riot

"Great to meet the strong & brave young women from #PussyRiot, who refuse to let their voices be silenced in #Russia. 1:09 PM - 4 Apr 2014" - Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton tweeted a picture Friday of her posing with members of the anti-Vladimir Putin punk rock group Pussy Riot. Clinton met with the women during the "Women in the World Summit" in New York. The group has emerged as chief opponents of Putin, and three members were jailed in 2012 after an anti-Putin performance at a church. The tweet has been re-tweeted almost 10,000 times.